Salim-Javed, one of the best known iconic jodis of Bollywood, came together on a couch to relive Sholay. They recalled how the script was rejected by many producers
Sholay is widely considered the greatest Hindi film ever made, and certainly Salim-Javed’s best script. When the film was re-released last week, almost 39 years after its original release, in 3D this time, did it bring back a flood of memoriesIJ
Javed Akhtar (JA): Well it did, at least for me…I felt that because I hadn’t seen the film in over 20 years, many things I had actually forgotten, and it felt like an almost new experience. And one must say in total objectivity — leave aside the fact that we were involved with the picture — it doesn’t look like an old film.
That’s true, it really holds up, doesn’t itIJ
Salim Khan (SK): It’s a timeless film. Whenever you see it, aisa lagta hai ki nothing is old and outdated in this film. And now when you look back it’s no longer a film, it’s an experience. “Have you had the experience of seeing SholayIJ” And there is the wonderful story about how it came into existence. It was a mere idea of 15-20 minutes which we narrated to so many people… From one producer we even got `10,000 as a signing amount. But eventually they all opted for some other script, and `10,000 bahut hote the uss zamane mein, and we had to return that. Jab Sholay banne wali thi we had one complete script — Majboor. It was a detailed script with dialogues, but when Sippy saab (producer GP Sippy) heard both Sholay and Majboor, he said Majboor was a restrictive script and there was no scope to make it into a big film. But he realised the potential of Sholay that it could be made into a big film, and he said ‘Iss par kaam karo (you start working on this one).’
People used to say that the two of you were very cocky and arrogant in your prime…
JA: That’s true
SK: Every person who knows his job and is aware of that is an arrogant person. There is a term in psychology — ‘the arrogance of clarity’. If you are clear…(holds his black jacket) ki yeh kala hai, you will not encourage any discussion on that. Hum aapas mein discuss karte and then we used to arrive at a certain thing. Aur uss mein agar koi interfere karta tha toh unnecessary hota tha. Hum jab enter hue hai tab writers ki koi authority nahi thi. Humari authority bhi aayi after giving ten hits in a row.
JA: In all honesty one must accept that there were multiple reasons for that. One, of course is that we were extremely young. He (Salim) was in his 30s and I was in my 20s when we did all this work. And on the other side, we came to film writing and cinema when writers were totally marginalised. They were very poorly paid. Their names were not put on posters and banners. It has happened again now. So I suppose one will have to write scripts again to set the record straight...(laughs). If a downtrodden person talks to you like an equal he sounds arrogant. So it was this equality which sounded like arrogance. Also, we were always so sure of ourselves. Now with age I realise that you have to become successful and then you have to make your success palatable for others. Perhaps we didn’t do that.
(The show will air on CNN IBN this Saturday)